'A Very Good, Lucky Life:' Manchester Man Feted On 100th Birthday
MANCHESTER, NJ — During World War II, Mel Traum served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps in Hawaii, working to maintain communications between troops in the Far East and Washington.
"There were no satellites back then," Traum, who lives in Leisure Village West, said Tuesday. Back then they had to watch out for weather disturbances to keep up radio contact. "We had a rating of 98 percent up time," he said.
These days, he doesn’t have to worry about the weather, thanks to wireless technology and satellites and so many other devices that fill our lives in 2020. It’s a transformation Traum has witnessed in his 100 years of life.
"It (the technology) really is something," said Traum, who turned 100 on Saturday and was surprised with a parade of police and fire vehicles, saluted by Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 10061, along with a socially distanced family gathering at the home of his companion, Florence Katz, who lives in Leisure Knoll.
His home has its share — a computer, a Kindle, an Amazon Alexa speaker, and he said he Facetimes with family regularly.
Traum, who lives in the Leisure Village West, had planned to throw himself a 100th birthday party before the coronavirus pandemic hit, said Pamela Katz, Florence’s granddaughter. With the pandemic forcing everyone to continue to limit their interactions, that wasn’t possible, so Pamela and her sisters Sophie and Sheila contacted friends and relatives and the VFW post to make sure his birthday was special.
"I was absolutely flabbergasted," Traum said. "I thought it was absolutely wonderful."
The parade included the Ridgeway Fire Company, the Manchester Fire Department, the Manchester Police Department, Manchester EMS, and members of VFW Post 10061.
Pamela Katz said Byron Conforme, commander of the VFW post, and Rob Keely, a friend and community member, helped to organized and pull off the celebration, which they planned at Florence’s home so Traum would be completely surprised.
It made up a little bit for the isolation that has been so hard on so many people during the pandemic, he said.
Traum, who was married for 69 years before his beloved wife, Ruth, died in 2011, said some of the modern conveniences have helped break up the silence when he’s at home, including his Alexa device.
"She’s my other girlfriend," he said with a laugh. "It’s amazing what I can ask her. She keeps me company when I’m alone. She plays music, she tells me jokes, she keeps me posted on the time."
Every afternoon, he drives from Leisure Village West across Route 70 to Leisure Knoll to spend the latter part of the day with Florence. They do New York Times crossword puzzles, watch some television and there’s a couple of shows on Netflix they watch on a regular basis.
Among them? " 'Atypical,' " he said. "You should check it out. It’s about an autistic young man, it’s very good."
Technology has been part of Traum’s world since he was a young man. His first job was working for ITT, International Telephone and Telegraph. Then World War II started, and rather than wait to be drafted, Traum enlisted.
"I could have deferred because of my job, but I wanted to make sure I got into the Signal Corps," he said. After basic training, he was one of 16 men selected for special training at Bell Labs in New York. After that training, eight were sent to the Phillippines, and the other eight, including Traum, were sent to Hawaii.
The sight was sobering for the 22-year-old, as the island still bore the scars from the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor the year before.
"We visited where the Japanese had bombed," he said. "The bullet holes were still in the walls from their machine guns."
Traum, who was born in 1920 and raised in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, served in the Army until he was honorably discharged in 1946, then returned to the East coast and his job with ITT, he said. He and Ruth had been married for about four years by then.
"By my 19th birthday I was hoping I would have a steady girlfriend," Traum said. A week after his 19th birthday, a date took him to a Sweet 16 party that was for Ruth.
"I walked in and saw her and knew this was the girl I was going to marry," he said. "I stayed for about an hour or so then took my date home, and then went back to the party."
By 1942, he was making a comfortable wage and knew he could support a family, he said.
"With overtime, I was making $100 a week,” Traum said. “It was enough to get married on."
Their one-week honeymoon cost $55. "I still have the letter from Liberty Travel Agency noting my $5 deposit for a one week’s stay."
They bought a house — "We paid $12,000 back then, and through the GI Bill, it was 4 percent interest, which was really good back then. Our mortgage cost us $87 a month," Traum said. Through the years, the couple raised two sons, Kenneth, who now lives in Montclair, and Bill, who lives in Fort Myers, Florida. They played canasta and traveled, and had a close group of couples they socialized with regularly.
“My wife and I grew up with six other couples; we went away on trips together,” he said. Later in his career, Traum left ITT and started a business manufacturing electronic parts for different companies. He did that for the last 17 years that he worked, before retiring in 1979 and moving to Leisure Village West. After he retired, he and Ruth would spend their winters in Hawaii.
“Ruth was a wonderful wife, mother and grandmother,” he said. In addition to their sons, they have three grandsons, in Florida, Queens, and Oklahoma, and two great-granddaughters, ages 3 and 6.
"I just had a happy, calm, life," Traum said. "I've had a very good, lucky life."
That luck continued when he met Florence, he said.
"She played canasta with Ruth," Traum said. After his wife had passed away, he attended a luncheon and Florence was there. They started talking then and the friendship blossomed.
"We spend every day together," he said. Because both he and Florence, who’s 92, have been limiting their contact with the outside world, they’ve been able to stay safe.
"Thank heavens for Shop Rite delivering food so I can eat," he said.
But he misses socializing and going out to the store.
"Costco was my favorite," he said. "But I won’t go there right now."
Technology has helped a bit, keeping him connected with family.
"We do Facetime with my great-granddaughters," and on Saturday, there was a Zoom call with family members and friends who were unable to come to the birthday celebration.
"When I retired I started to do some work with the computer and learn what I could," Traum said. He’d had no interest in it before that, while he was working. "The funny part is when I was in business, I had an engineer working for me who was self-taught on the computer. We didn’t have laptops then. Back in the 1960s, we had to send the information directly" to the companies they worked with, using a large mainframe, which was in a separate room. "I never went in there," he said.
Traum said much of his computer learning started when he was taking bridge lessons on the computer after Ruth died. When the lessons were over, "we had two computers in the Village that we didn’t know what to do with. So we started a computer club."
As they learned, they shared their knowledge, giving computer lessons and teaching others how to use Microsoft Word and other programs. Staying engaged and learning knew things keeps him sharp, he said.
In addition to his Alexa and his computer, Traum has a Kindle now, and plans to use it to read up more on playing bridge.
"I have a great bridge partner once we start playing again," he said.
And he looks forward to being able to socialize again.
"I like to talk to people," Traum said. "I just love people."
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This article originally appeared on the Manchester Patch
